


Lines in the Sand

by dogmatix



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is Inhuman, Cecil is Inhuman, Gen, M/M, References to Drugs, Strex!Carlos, and does know it, but doesn't know it, post ep 35 - Lazy Days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2018-01-02 19:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cecil has an ally in a war he didn’t know he was fighting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lines in the Sand

"Cecil, don’t."

Cecil looked at Carlos in surprise.  The tired scientist’s hand was still covering Cecil’s on the counter.

"But Carlos, I have to.  Strex mandated that all employees at the radio station-"

"I don’t care, _don_ 't take the pills.”

"Really Carlos, they’re just vitamins," Cecil said, baffled at the grim tension  in the hands holding his down.

Carlos stepped in towards Cecil, putting him close enough that when he talked in a low, urgent voice, not even the Secret Police would be able to hear.  “They’re not just vitamins.  They’re drugs meant to control the people of Night Vale. Right now they’re targeting influential people only, to make it easier for them to sink their teeth into the town.”

Cecil gaped at Carlos.  Maybe his wonderful boyfriend had come down with a touch of heatstroke - he had been out in the sun all day, hammering heat and all.  “Carlos, I’m sure that’s not the case. Besides, I can’t just not follow station policy.”  So saying, Cecil gently but firmly tugged his hand from Carlos’ and popped the vitamins into his mouth.

Instantly Carlos was there, pressing his lips to Cecil’s and slipping a long, slick tongue into Cecil’s mouth, which had gone slack with shock.  “Hmmph?”

Almost without Cecil noticing, the two vitamin pills were suddenly gone, plucked from the back of his mouth by an impossibly long, skilled tongue.

Eyes snapping open in surprise, Cecil found himself eye to black, bottomless eye with the man in front of him.  But, but it was still _Carlos_.

Carlos dry-swallowed the vitamins, staring at Cecil with his black eyes.  “No,” he said after a silent moment.  “No Cecil they’re not just vitamins. They’re drugs.”

Cecil shook his head slightly.  “What… what is this?”  He’d never seen his perfectly imperfect Carlos like this before, and yet it was familiar, it reminded him of something, of… his double!  “You’re, you’re Carlos’ double?”

Carlos - his double? - seemed surprised at that.  “Double-? Oh. No. The man you met during the sandstorm was Kevin, not your double. Kevin’s from Desert Bluffs.  He’s…. it’s complicated.”  Carlos huffed.  “The drugs are affecting you though.”

"I don’t know what you mean," Cecil said, utterly confused.  This was Carlos, but his double hadn’t been his double?  And drugs? Why would Station Management- only it wasn’t Station Management anymore, was it.

"Cecil.  It’s been three weeks since I got a haircut, and you haven’t mentioned it once."

Haircut? No, surely not-

And then Cecil looked at Carlos’ beautiful, perfect hair.  He’d seen it, of course, he’d seen it just about every day for the past few months, and it wasn’t-

It was.  Carlos’ hair was trimmed short, cropped close to his skull.  There was a fleck of blood on his cheek.

Cecil shook his head, mouth working silently.

Carlos put large, steadying hands on Cecil’s shoulders and leaned in even closer.  “I need you to listen to me.  Don’t take the drugs.  If you can’t get rid of them, bring them to me, and I’ll take them on top of my own, that way there’s no evidence.”

"Your own?" Cecil parroted.

Carlos smiled, teeth like a military cemetery - perfectly even and perfectly grim.  “I’ve been on those damn things since I was a kid. The dosages they have me on is ridiculous, and they don’t know how high my tolerance has gotten, or it would be a lot worse.  The trace amounts they put in your ‘vitamins’ are nothing to me, even in addition to my dose.”

Cecil blinked, trying to force himself to think past the shock and numbness, and how hadn’t he noticed how numb he’d gotten over the days and weeks?  “But Strex thinks the vitam-er, drugs do work on you.  Why don’t they? What, what makes you different?”

Carlos’ black eyes looked away from Cecil, nervous, or maybe ashamed?

"You remember when you found those cassettes? About you being an intern."

Cecil shuddered. “Those weren’t-  I mean, they have nothing to do with me.”

"They kind of do.  I’m Carlos in the same way that you’re Cecil.  Or the way Kevin is Kevin.  You don’t… do the eyes, although for a long time I thought you simply didn’t choose to, not that you’d forgotten you could."

The shock was more distant than it should have been.  It was hard to process what Carlos was saying, but it had more to do with the numbness that had settled over Cecil gradually than the pure insanity of what Carlos was saying.

"I’m… human," Cecil protested weakly.

"Partly, yes.  You’re still Cecil, but you’re not _just_ Cecil.  The other parts of us are drawn to Power, and try to possess and overwhelm the human aspect when it first enters the host.  I’m not sure Kevin’s human self really survived the way yours and mine did,” Carlos frowned. “It gets confusing talking about it. English isn’t really set up for the subject.”

The really significant fact finally percolated through Cecil’s brain. “You work for Strex.”

Solidly black eyes snapped back to Cecil’s face for a second, then away again. Carlos’ shoulders slumped a bit.  “I do.  When Strex first started officially acquiring Night Vale, a few months ago, I thought it best to just… go with it.  Protect you as much as I could. Ease the transition.”

"What changed?" Cecil asked, a small part of him dying with worry that Carlos meant to leave him, a slightly larger part of him wanting to yell and scream and punch.  Neither of those were strong enough to bubble to the surface.

"Night Vale started fighting back." Carlos’ smile as he looked at Cecil was more a baring of teeth than anything else, yet it was still happy, somehow.  Happily bloodthirsty.  Not an expression Cecil was used to seeing on his perfect Carlos.

"The children…"

"A good start," Carlos nodded.  "And today, when nobody had any energy.  I took some readings while I was between chores.  The energy levels all over Night Vale plunged for a few hours.  At first I thought Night Vale was surrendering.  But it was only gathering its energy to fight back.  The heat and sun today? That was Strex.  The black form that attacked it?  That was Night Vale."

"You’re talking about Night Vale like it’s, like it’s alive…" Cecil said, bewildered.

"You didn’t know?" Carlos asked, leaning in so that their lips almost brushed.  A warm, blood-spattered hand rested on Cecil’s cheek.  Carlos’ bottomless black eyes seemed to stare into Cecil’s numb soul.  "Night Vale is more than just the name of a town.  Strex managed to subdue Desert Bluffs, but Night Vale, Night Vale is fighting back like nothing I’ve ever seen.  And if it comes down to a fight between Strex and Night Vale, Night Vale’s going to need its Voice like never before."

Cecil shivered under Carlos’ hot breath.  “But, you _work_ for Strex.”

"Not by choice," Carlos almost growled.  "They have Desert Bluffs, so they have me - the part of me that’s not human - with no way out."

"Won’t fighting them hurt you?" Cecil asked without stopping to wonder how he knew what to ask.

"Yes. But as long as Desert Bluffs survives, I should too.  And if it comes down to you or Strex, there’s no contest," Carlos murmured as he brushed burning hot lips across Cecil’s.

It was an endless, perfect moment, and it felt like something that surely must be pain when Carlos pulled away slightly.

"I’ll understand if you don’t want us to, ah, to date anymore.  I’ll help either way.  I’m…. I’m sorry I lied to you, Cecil."

Cecil hadn’t even considered breaking up with Carlos. Should he have? Why hadn’t he?  The drugs?  A connection - a love - that was just that strong?  Cecil wanted to say that he forgave Carlos, but he’d already had proof that his thinking was affected.  “I-“  But his thinking had been his own when they’d started dating, right?  “Give me a few days?”

"Of course," Carlos said.

Cecil brushed another kiss across Carlos’ sweet lips, chaste and quick.

It seemed to put some light back in Carlos’ pitch black eyes, and between one blink and the next Carlos’ eyes were back to normal - warm brown and ever attentive.  Carlos ran a hand through Cecil’s hair.  “Come on. Let’s go lie down.  I’ll tell you everything I know.”

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by goddess-in-green’s drawing of Strex!Carlos)


End file.
